SENT FOR TRIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 135, 10 June 1942, Page 7

SENT FOR TRIAL

MAORI SOLDIER

CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER AND ASSAULT

''fo'"^- view there is a clear case t for the. (accused to. answer of having accelerated the death of this woman, thereby committing , manslaughter. I propose to commit him to the Supreme Couiff for trial," said Mr. A. M. Goulding,;^ S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today concerning David Waitoa, aged 40, a, soldier, and labourer, who pleaded not/gtsty Vto a charge of committing manslaughter by killing Maude Purcell.'"" : Waitoa also pleaded not guilty to and, was committed for trial on a charge of assaulting Hori Paapa Tupe soas to cause-him actual bodily harm. Bail was allowed in the sum of £100, with two sureties of £150 each. . ; Detective-Sergeant W. McLennan conducted:the prosecution and Mr. R. R. Sc_ott appeared for Waitoa. HorirPaapaTupe, a cleaner, said that .he had a room in a house,in Boulcott Street. Mrs, Purcell came to the room on the evening of Saturday, May 30, and the accused came very soon afterwards. Both appeared to have had some- drinkv He asked them to leave but-they-refused. The accused, tried to kick him and then struck him in the -eye. The witness then went to the "police station and then to the hospital for attention to a cut on his left eye." When he came home;agajn^the,-accused.and Mrs. Pur-. ceU"%fse r "in : - another .room - in -the hOUSj?. s:;i :-;■;; ;;;^;;-.;-. \; ':;/hy:. •:■■■-'-, Cross^xamined, .the witness said that MrsCJ^ceii.had a rooiri in the house. He bad Heard : that, Mrs. Purcell was known Mrs. -Watson, but did not know-that she- was getting the accused's allotment from the Army. Re-examined, the witness said that Mrs. * Purcell had only just returned from a month in hospital Charies Henry Simpson, a seaman, said he heard "a row in a room in the house^at "Boulcott Street and he found, a fightgoing on in Tupe's room. WaJtoa. "wasVpniftop. of Tupe, who was ; lying-on- the"l floor: covered in blood. The witness stopped the flght. ; MrsPurcell was aiso in the room, as well as-;Tupej& twovypung children, Mrs, Purcell had a bruise over her right eye. Waitoa and Mrs, Purcell walked^ to the .•witness's room and he left the house." in cross-examination the witness said that each time he had seen Mrs. Purcell she had never been sober. Waitoa was looking after her when he took her into the witness's room. He was doing his. best for her. ■ Constable J. P. McHugh said he went to the house on Saturday night, May 30, and found Mrs. Purcell lying on a bed. She had an injury to her right eye and temple. When told he would have to come to the police station. Waitpa replied: "I am going to'stay with Maude.. Look what the others have done to her." To Mr. Scott,1 the constable said he believed Waitoa went with Mrs. Purcell' in the ambulance to the hospital.^ ■ ' ■■■■■■ ■ MEDICAL EVIDENCE. Dr. S.'W.. P. Mirams, a house surgeon at- the. Wellington Hospital, said that.Maude Purcell was admitted at about 1111/40 p.m. on May 30. She was also known:as-Maude Waitoa. She was deeply unconscious, and there were .bruising and abrasions above her right eye and a small contused wound on the back of her skull. She smelt of alcohol. She died at 3.20 p.m. next day without having regained consciousness. DivP,. P v# Lyn,ch, said, he had made a pos't-ntorlem examination of Mrs. Purcell.. There was a large, diffuse, and stale'collection of blood beneath the thicl? covering membrane of the brain. Beneath the stale blood was a more recent blood clot. .He had been told that the deceased was a patient at the Wellington Hospital about four months ago with some obscure cerebral complaint, and he thought it likely that the older and larger portion of the jsubdural hemorrhage was present at that time. . The external injuries were, consistent, with her having been struck with a clenched fist and having fallen ..on to the back of her head. Eithey. of the two external injuries could;hive caused the fresh bleeding beneath tlje existing blood collection. It Was' the' fresh hemorrhage which caused xleath. Such; a hemorrhage could be spontaneous and quite apart from any injury, said the doctor in cross-examina-tion. ;. Neither the injury to the right eye nor the. injury to the back of he head; would, be likely to cause !eath in a normal person. To the Magistrate, the doctor said he bruising of the eye was constent,with a.severe blow, but even a lghf,blow. might, have started a fresh lembrrhage, just as excitement might. Senior-Sergeant E. W. Dinnie, flnger■vint expert and. photographer, proiuced photographs of the deceased. * TWO STATEMENTS. Detective-Sergeant J. Thompson proluced and.read a statement made by 'Vaitoa, In it Waitoa said he had been iving with Mrs. Purcell, who was a widow since 1937, She had only just ' -*ome out of hospital before May 30. On the night of May 30 she told him that Tupe had hit her in a bit of an argument. Tupe latex* called Waitoa a , and Waitoa hit him on the nose. :■■-■■ Latex, - said the detective-sergeant, Waitoa made a second statement, in which he said the first statement was not entirely correct. He had hit Maude Purcell and Tupe. He lost his temper through being jealous. He hit Maude Purcell with/ his fist and she fell back on to the verandah. He was sorry he had hit her, as he was very fond of her.'•> He had'-'also hit Tupe with his fist